Sailing Ever On
by Webberfish
Summary: *One Shots* The day to day and in between lives of the Straw-Hat Pirates with a special eye towards LuNa. Chapter Three - Not Everyone is the same type of Pirate
1. Prompt: Fairy Tale

"...47...48..."

"If you brush it anymore your hair is bound to fall out." Robin teased, watching the navigator over the edge of her book. Nami tutted at the natural beauty behind her, Robin didn't understand about hair care maintenance, her long black hair always looked amazing no matter she doing. In fact, Nami frowned, she couldn't remember the woman ever sporting a single split end.

"...49...50!"

"Although, bald would be a good look for you."

"Oh Robin."

The Navigator stood from their shared vanity placing her hairbrush back in her haircare drawer and retrieving a curler set. She had always had short hair in her youth, and it was pretty easy to take care of. It had been a necessity more so then a style decision back then. She was constantly on the run from pirates or sailing by herself on long open seas. Not to mention all those longs years locked within Arlong Park itself. Being poor or enslaved had kept her mind off her hair and looks.

But after Luffy had set her free she'd started to put a little more effort into her appearance. She was after all a blossoming eighteen year old. The first thing to come were the clothes. Dozens of outfits to pick from all ranging from casual tank tops, flirty skirts, sassy dresses and sexy ballgowns. Nothing was beyond her reach or enjoyment in those months following the demise of Arlong Park. She swore she'd never wear blue strips again.

Her hair had started to grow in those long, lonely days in Weatheria.

Growing it long felt good, she decided, sitting by herself in a tiny house on a cloud. Not only did she look sexier, it was a mark of pride. She didn't have to have it short anymore because she wasn't a slave to someone's will, she was free in New World, and she was free with Luffy. She could be, or look like, anything she wanted.

But now, two years later and the tangles of brilliant orange hair went all the way to her lower back and required some serious time and effort to remain luxurious and beautiful.

Only Robin knew about the navigators nightly haircare ritual and often teased her about it.

Rolling the longer strands first into the curlers it took her the next few minutes to set the rest. Once that was done she sighed in contentment and crawled in the same bed as her best friend, trying to avoid poking her with her exaggerated cone head.

Robin smiled and shuffled over. She turned the book towards the younger woman so they could share and read equally.

The historian always found the most interesting stories and novels for them to enjoy and after both woman being separated they made a new tradition in the days following Sabaody Archipelago to spend time together just by themselves.

"What's the story Robin?"

"A desert princess and a bandit rebel must work together to save her kingdom."

"That's like Vivi!" Nami exclaimed happily, crowding Robin and tilting the book towards her. "Look it had pictures. This girl looks just like her!" Closing the cover and flipped back to the title page, Nami made a surprised squeak. "This comes from Alabasta. Someone wrote a book about Vivi!"

"Looks like it."

"Where did you find this, Robin! Wow! We should show the rest of the crew tomorrow, Luffy will be so excited."

Robin chuckled and pointed a trim nail to the blonde haired man on the cover. He looked like a beefy version of Kohza. "I skimmed through this while you were rolling your hair, Nami, there's no inclusion of pirates. I guess they weren't allowed to associate themselves in print."

"That's okay Robin, we know the truth."

The two woman opened to the first page and they read together, Nami excitedly filling in Robin on all the details she had missed during her time in Crocodile's "service". The story was cheesy, and overly romantic (Neither remembered a love song recital on the palace balcony) but it was warm in a way that was familiar.

Although the historian hadn't known the desert princess except for the occasional taunting, Nami was happy to fill her in and talk about all the memories of their time together. Ending over an hour later at the end of the children's fairy tale, Nami jumped over to her bed, her long red hair bobbing in their curlers and grabbed a cartography pen. She drew a thick X on her forearm and turned her back on the historian, pushing her naked arm straight to the ceiling.

"It doesn't matter how long we knew each other or when the next time we see one another again; this X is a mark of our friendship. We are nakama."

"Very inspiring." teased the dark haired woman with a mysterious smile.

"It's Luffy." she explained, collasping into giggles. "He's a very inspiring guy."

Robin pointed a long finger to her friends head, her own mind remembering a certain Captain's furious tirade for the sake of her life. Inspiring indeed.

"I think you ruined your hair for tonight, Nami."

"Eeeeiii?"


	2. Prompt: Log Book

"You better knock off kid. You're starting to piss me off."

"Shut up! Take me seriously. I'm not a joke!"

Nami sighed, sinking her weight into the blue staff of her Ultimate Sorcery Climatact. Standing on the deck of her over sized waver was some snot nosed brat with entitlement issues. He looked about 12 with ruby red hair cut all spiky in the front and a t-shirt with number 17. Called himself a pirate but looked like a dishwasher to her.

"I don't have time for this."

He didn't even have a crew or a ship and she'd be hard pressed to call it a boat either. A small weather covering with a basic sail and two large oars when the wind died off was anchored next to her waver. A single chest sat under the front seat and Nami's sharp eye for treasure knew on instinct because of the boats movement that it was empty or close to. She wouldn't even be able to collect a fee for this waste of time.

"I know you have the Log Book of the Pirate King's journey. I need that book if I want to sail on the Grand Line."

"You realize you caught me on my vacation? That's the only reason I'm tolerating any of this crap with such a sweet and pleasant disposition."

"Give me the Log Book, you old hag!"

The kid in front of her yelled, his gloved fist pointing directly into her face. Nami's brown eyes narrowed and she stepped forward activating the electric charge on her climatact. The kid's eyes widened.

"You're going to insult me? And calling me a harpy?! Look at me, I look pretty damn good for a woman in her fifties!" She whipped the boy across the head with her climatact, keeping the electric current minimum to scare the intruder and not seriously hurt him. He tumbled over himself across the deck of her vessel and desperately clawed at the wooden railing to stop himself from going into the ocean. "Devil Fruit User."

"You're crazy! What are you trying to do, kill me?"

"That Log Book is one of my most precious treasures and I'm sure as hell not giving it some brat like you. Give yourself five years and then go out to the sea yourself."

"Don't lecture me!" She raised her eyebrows as he stumbled back to his feet, grunting off the attack and patting out his smoking t-shirt. Nami briefly wondered for a moment how Zoro's youngest son was doing, this kid kind of reminded her of him. He was a big loud mouth too."I know all about you. Cat-thief Nami, Pirate Queen to Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy and Navigator to the greatest Pirate crew on earth. That Log Book is one of the most valuable artifacts about the success of Pirates. I want to be the best so hand it over."

The Pirate Queen felt an odd flicker in her chest. It had been a while since someone had mentioned her name that way and it's casual mention brought with it a feeling of loss. It was the best years of her life and it hurt to see it behind her. To her however, you lived to move forward, so the orange haired woman just smirked instead.

"You're not getting it kid, and if you try to push your luck I'll kick you into the damn ocean and kill you."

The Log Book.

Nami hadn't thought of it in several years, not at least since poor Chopper's funeral over a decade ago. The Logia Reindeer had a long extended life for a reindeer, but a short one in the comparison to humans. He had passed peacefully in his sleep. That was probably one of her last entries, after that it just didn't seem the same to comment on the 'adventures' of the 'Straw-Hat' Pirates. Their numbers were dwindling and without Luffy it all just seemed to float around aimlessly, so what was the point?

However, that did not mean that those Log Books (for of course there was more then one) which were a written record to every memory and adventure of the Nine Straw Hats over the course of a lifetime were not valuable to her.

In fact that book was valuable to most everyone in the world. The marine's would die to get their hands on it. The information it contained was the direct cause of the second and third age of Piracy and the breakdown on the old World Government. Not to mention to location of Raftel and how to avoid the dangers to get there. It also contained the home islands of the remaining Straw-Hat Pirates, and their aliases of peace which known could lead to their capture. All of them still had insanely large Bounties, and in Zoro's case was an annoying thorn in the Governments side.

To Pirates, either rookies like this one or seasoned veterans those books held the secrets and successes of the world. The safe passage to Raftel and the treasure Luffy had left there, the Sky Islands under the old Pirate King's control still unknown to the residents of the 'Blue Sea'. It held all her secrets of navigating the 'New World' although it'd been thirty years since that sea was new to her. Sanji's secrets to cooking of Dead Seas. Robin's secrets of the True History of the world were wrapped up in yellowed pages. And to Nami, more important then anything else, it held the secret location of Luffy's grave.

More then all that though, it was the day to day accounts of their time together as friends. What stupid thing Luffy had gotten them into, what Sanji had prepared on a special occasion, Zoro's accounts of getting lost. It was a picture book of her family.

She let out a long breath.

The kid held his arms up in a defensive manner, glowering at the older woman.

She stood on spiked high heels, with long naked legs in short demin shorts and a small bikini top. Over the top of it was what he knew was the modified coat of the once Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy. It's golden laurels were on her slim shoulders, it's deep red fabric brushed against her naked torso and cut off just under her full breasts. He could see the tattooed jolly roger of the Straw-Hat pirates on her left abdomen muscle, it was after all the most famous mark in Piracy. He read about all of these things in books many times over his lifetime, tucked away in his bed.

She was practically ancient to him, he after all, just turned 12 and she was well into her fifties. He'd been dreaming of meeting this woman since he was five years old. He'd heard all about the stories of the Straw-Hat Pirates and their domination of the Grand Line. Monkey D. Luffy was a legend of legends who'd started a third age of Piracy after finding One Piece and defeating all the old heads of the Old World Government. He had ushered in an era of dreams and peace, until his death in his thirties, when corrupt marines had once again darkened the world. Monkey. D. Luffy had been his idol, and standing in front of him now, was the woman who'd lead him around the world and the only person on this planet who could start him on his own dream.

Monkey D. Nami, the woman who could control the weather of the Grand Line, the left hand of the old Pirate King and the keeper to all his secrets. And it didn't hurt, for being practically ancient that she was such a babe.

"Listen Kid, I get it. You want to be the New Pirate King?" He nodded enthusiastically, unable to help himself. "You're not to first one to come after me and they always want something to do with Luffy but your out of your depth here. I can kill you without even blinking. You, as a devil fruit user, took me, a controller of tides and weather in a fight on a floating platform on the sea." She raised a slim eyebrow at him and lifted up her odd weapon again.

The kidgrimaced. He knew of course, that this woman was a weather witch. Her powers, as strange as they were, were also legendary. He steadied his feet. He wouldn't back off one inch.

"I don't care about any of that. I want the power to have more freedom then anyone else, and that means to be the new Pirate King. The only way to do that in this day in age is to get Monkey D. Luffy's secrets."

Nami felt the tide of her heart turn. The aggravation of this baby twisted and she pictured her dark haired friend who had changed every aspect of her life. That had been his ultimate dream too, to be so free he could go and do everything he wanted. And he had. Luffy had a life filled with adventures and happiness, even if that very lifestyle killed him before he was thirty-five.

The hardness around her heart seized for only a moment and she felt the real side of things come to the surface, wishing Luffy could be the one here to give this kid his lesson.

"I'll tell you a secret, Luffy had no idea what he was doing. He couldn't navigate or make decisions to save his life. In fact most of the choices he did end up making put all of us into some kind of mortal peril. Most of the time he was a total idiot."

"W-what?"

"There's no big secrets, there never was. Luffy was a man who made dreams come true, both for himself for others but not because of some magic secret. It was sheer force of will. If you want to experience your dream you need to go out and start doing it yourself. Grow up a little, train hard in the mean time and when the time comes gather a crew together who wants the same thing as you and sail into distant oceans. Create your own stories. Reading his won't do you any good."

Nami couldn't help but smile, thinking back to a day so long ago when her Captain had shouted at his sharpshooter in the presence of the first Pirate King's first mate about the faith he had in his own dream.

_'If you tell us one word old man, I'll stop being a pirate! I don't want to find out anything that way!' _

Nami walked towards the misguided kid who spoke the same words of her lover. She saw him flinch at her approach, and chuckled inwardly that he had good reason. She did after all threaten his life and he was smart enough to remember it. Holstering her climatact, the Pirate Queen crouched down to be level with his shorter body. She put both hands on his shoulders and gave him one of her real smiles, winking at him as was her trademark.

"Besides kid, what fun is it for you if you start your path with all the answers? Grow and become a strong man in your own way. That's the true way of a Pirate King."

She slipped her hand into the fold of the kids shorts and withdrew his money purse without him noticing. She waved it in his face as she kicked his boat off with one of her high heels a few minutes later.

"Consider this a finders fee."

He bellowed and cursed her name. Nami watched as the dingy took off into the seas of the East Blue with a loudmouth kid and a familiar dream. Humming, she went into the cabin of her house waver, walked right by crates and chests of overflowing golden treasure to her bunk.

Flipping up the mattress of her bed and the wooden planing that supported it, she fished the wooden planking and popped three loose boards. Jimmying out a small locked chest, she took her prize over to her desk. Unhooking her necklace and twisting it into the key (a design of Franky of course) she unlocked the chest and popped it open.

Her most precious, precious possessions laid inside. A few letters tied with string in the writing styles of her namaka and sister. A single treasure map rolled and sealed with wax; to this day Luffy's messy finger prints were all over it. There was a mikan with a curly stem and leaf, covered in tight dark swirls resting in a glass shadow box. Nami pushed a huge tomb aside, a current binding of her maps and her near complication of the map of the world. There was a bundle of Straw Hat Wanted Posters all the original bounty numbers. At the bottom was a single notebook, the last Log Book of the Mugiwara Pirates. She opened it.

A few pictures slipped from between the pages and one by one she picked them up to see. The day Luffy had been declared Pirate King, all nine of the Straw-hats squished into the frame and giving off tired but overjoyed grins.

The day of their 'wedding' which technically wasn't a wedding because they'd been outlaws and it was illegal for them to file the actual paperwork. Nami remembered the extremely beautiful bridal dress she'd bought for the occasion, and only got to wear it for the ceremony (which wasn't more then ten minutes or so) because Luffy had spilled a bottle of wine on her almost immediately. He'd seen Brook pop a cork of champagne and followed suit to his 'wife's' shock and fury.

In this picture her past image was kissing her groom with a very sexy, but decidedly not bridal red cocktail dress.

"You always did like when I wore red."

Funny, the Pirate Queen thought, pulling his jacket closer to her slim body. Since the day he died she'd been wearing this coat. It was her mark of pride because it had been his. It's worn material was also bright red with gold decorative buttons and fancy laurels. She'd been wearing bright red as a tribute for the last eighteen years and she knew she'd tend and wear it until the day she died.

"Luffy."

Opening the Log Book to the the last passage, she quickly read the words she knew by heart. She had wrote them crying. The anniversary five years after Luffy's death to the day, the last day the remaining eight sailed under his Jolly Roger and the disbandment of the remaining Straw Hats. It was dated so long ago and until today if felt wrong to add any more to their story.

Picking up her nearby pen, Nami dipped it in the dark ink and wrote the current date.

_'Today, I met the future King of the Pirates...'_

And somewhere, she swore she could hear familiar laughter.

'Shishishishi.'


	3. Prompt: Trigger

Bounty Hunters and rival pirate crews grew smarter and more ruthless as Thousand Sunny navigated through the New World. Sometimes she forgot that not everybody was like her namaka and so good natured.

Nami shook, her hands desperately trying to push the thick arm from her throat. He was too strong and feeling the weight of the pistol to the back of her skull she didn't struggle to hard.

"Load all your treasure, food stores and weaponry onto my ship and I won't kill her."

"We don't have any treasure, I keep telling you!" Nami winced as he flexed, pushing his corded muscles into her throat and shoulders. His grip was leaving bruises she did not want to think about.

"You bastard, let go of Nami-san!"

"Don't rush Sanji, he'll hurt her!"

"Fools! You people don't understand the oceans of the New World yet. The pirates who sail here don't give second chances, we're the best of the best!"

"D-don't!" Luffy cried weakly. He was tangled in a net of sea stone, pinned to the side of Sunny. "Don't touch my n-nakama!" Even the effort of yelling seemed to drain the life of the "energized" captain and he slumped further to the Adam Wood deck. Chopper tried to step a take forward as his doctors instinct raged but the sharp cry from Nami stopped him.

The pirate was pulling her hair, exposing the long line of her neck. He moved the gun to directly over her jugular and pointed up to her chin. Zoro grimaced, twitching to move and slash the pirate but knowing the mechanized bullet would tear Nami's body apart before he made it even close to her. Even the love cook to his side would be hard pressed to go that fast.

Sanji himself was completely torn, he was desperately worried about Nami-san but knew his limits. He too would not be able to be fast enough to move his friend without the reaction of the captain's pistol.

"Farewell Straw Hats, good luck catching up to me." He grinned, wrapping his hand around the hovering rope and hooking his boot into the slip knot. "One more thing." As fast as they could see he whipped the pistol back around, took a quick aim and fired a single shot.

The orange haired woman collapsed to the deck with a sharp cry. Blood blossoms bloomed on her white tank-top, and she grasped for her wounded skin.

"Just to make sure you don't get any ideas to follow me."

The rival Captain was gone.

* * *

"Luffy, he shot me because I navigate the ship."

"So!"

Nami laid in the infirmary room bed reading the most current newspaper, one arm in a cloth sling. Luffy was holding the other half of the newspaper as she flipped with her free hand. There were little shadows under her eyes, and a healthy amount of white gauze wrapped tightly around her right shoulder but other then that she looked, and talked just like herself.

"It's an important job that not everybody would be able to do. If somehow Robin got hurt, it would hurt us terribly because she's our friend, but the operations of the ship would be able to continue without much problem."

"Because she wants the true history?"

Nami winced and let the paper drop, turning to stare at her inquisitive albeit worried captain.

"Exactly! Robin is smart, and a great archeologist but not many pirate crews have people who study history. It's not a set job. If the captain was missing, we'd have no direction to go." she explained patiently. "Or if there was no doctor, there would be trouble. Like before Drum Island when I was sick, we had to go all the way to an island to treat me. It's not a good idea not to have a trained medical expert." Luffy nodded. "But if the cook quit tomorrow, someone on the crew would be able to cook. Maybe not as good, but the crew would still be fed. Like when you, Zoro, Ussop and I sailed in Merry-Go before we came to the Baratie. We still ate, even if it wasn't half as good as the meals Sanji prepares."

"But that's not true Nami everybody on Sunny is important."

Once upon a time she might have gotten impatient with his obvious questions but after missing his naivety in their two years apart, and seeing how much he doted on and hung around in the last 24 hours of being injured, she tried again.

"To you they are because they're your nakama. But some jobs are more helpful on a ship then others, do you understand?"

He nodded slowly, but his face still looked confused. Nami lightly rolled her eyes.

"That guy wanted to rob Sunny and he knew all about us. So instead of punching through everybody or cutting up his enemy he decided to stop the ship from moving. To do that all he had to do was hurt me enough. With me in here, I can't control the heading and we had to anchor. So that guy is long gone by now and because New World seas are so dangerous and I'm injured we can't follow him."

"Oh." Luffy crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in Chopper's doctors chair, with his oddly serious expression. Nami thought it was pretty cute. "So being a navigator is dangerous."

"In a way, yes. Not only do I control the course of Sunny but I keep the ship safe too from storms and bad currents. Other pirates know that navigators are trained specially and if one is in the New World they must be good at it, too!"

"You're the best navigator, Nami. I know that already."

"That's why they went for me first. Without a proper Navigator to set the course, and keep an eye out on bad weather a ship is vulnerable. If that guy had killed me, Sunny would of been stranded and in danger."

"..."

Nami frowned, tightening her grip on the infirmary room linen but continued on.

"Arlong took me into his crew because I could draw maps and sea charts. He knew it was an important skill he needed, so that's why he tried to hard to keep me on Cocoyashi island. Without maps, he wouldn't of been able to go from island to island to capture other towns.

And that lion guy, Shiki, to advance in his plan he needed someone who could keep his ship safe. When he heard I knew about that cyclone, he decided that I was be able to predict weather for him and keep his ship from being damaged.

And today, that guy knew that if I was out of the picture you guys would be seriously in trouble. That's why he went for me instead of Sanji, or Robin, or Franky."

She didn't mention to him if probably also had something to do with she was one of the physically weaker crew members as well, which also made her an easy target.

"...so you'll always be in danger. Other people will want you to be _their_ nakama or want you to stop being mine."

Without thinking she reached out and took his hand, squeezing his collasped fingers and worn knuckles. He had to know that she didn't want to go anywhere without him.

"I only want to navigate for you, Luffy. I want us to travel together to accomplish both our dreams right here on Sunny...but I'm a risk too."

"Then I'll protect you, Nami."

His voice was soft, instead of forceful, as was his custom when talking about protecting things that were his. The Navigator looked to him surprised. Generally Luffy didn't get the finer tune of human emotions. Her heart beat a tattoo in her chest as she looked into his dark eyes.

"You're a treasure to Sunny, without you we wouldn't be able to sail. And you're a treasure to _me_," he said, squeezing her hand and wishing he could explain. "I wouldn't be Pirate King if Nami didn't take me there."


End file.
